The Writer’s Center presents a FREE virtual chat about the craft of fiction! We’re joined by Elizabeth Gonzalez James to discuss her debut novel, Mona at Sea. Elizabeth will be in conversation with Zach Powers, novelist and Director of Communications at The Writer’s Center.
RSVP below to receive login information (our virtual events are held via Zoom). FREE and open to the public, all times Eastern.
We encourage you to order a copy of the book online or from your local, independent bookseller.
Elizabeth Gonzalez James‘s stories and essays have appeared in The Idaho Review, The Rumpus, PANK Magazine, and elsewhere, and have received numerous Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominations. In 2021 she is a regular contributor to Ploughshares Blog. Her debut novel Mona at Sea was a finalist in the 2019 SFWP Literary Awards judged by Carmen Maria Machado, and is forthcoming June 2021. Originally from South Texas, she now lives in Oakland with her family.
About the Book
Mona Mireles is seven months out of college and desperately trying to reassemble the pieces of her life after the Wall Street job she had waiting for her post-graduation dissolves in the wake of the Great Recession. Set in suburban Tucson amid the financial and social malaise of the early 2000s, 23-year-old Mona must not only find a job, but quickly learn to navigate the complexities of adult relationships within the black hole of her parents’ shattering marriage. At her mother’s urging, Mona grudgingly joins a support group for job seekers, and slowly begins to see that all is not lost. She might even learn what it is she finds meaningful in life. The question is: Will she be brave enough to go after it? Mona at Sea is a darkly funny coming-of-age tale that takes the audience on a wild journey through a strange, uncertain modern America.